Why is My Wound Not Healing?

You may wonder, “why is my wound not healing?”. Generally, wounds can heal alone, especially if given the proper treatment and wound care. However, chronic wounds are more serious. They can take weeks or months to heal. But there are also instances where they don’t seem to be making any progress toward healing at all. In times like these, medical intervention is necessary to prevent more serious complications.

What is a Chronic Wound?

A chronic wound is a wound that doesn’t heal within the usual timeframes. Several factors come into play, such as the severity of the wound and its nature. If a normal wound heals within eight weeks, a chronic wound takes months to heal, with some not being able to heal completely. Common symptoms include:

• The wound doesn’t show signs of healing within 30 days
• Numbness on the wound
• Changes in color
• Odor
• Wound discharge
• Swelling

If you notice these signs on your wound, consult a medical professional. Treating the underlying cause will allow your wound to resume healing smoothly.

Common Causes of Delayed Healing

The possible answers to your question “why won’t my wound heal?” may be done or more of the following:

Infection

Infection occurs when bacteria, virus, or fungi proliferates in the wound area. When this happens, the natural healing process of the wound is hindered or halted. This is because the body is fighting the infection instead of healing the wound.

An infected wound shows redness, soreness, swelling, and pain. It may also discharge puss and/or have a foul-smelling odor.

Poor Nutrition

A wound’s healing process may slow down if your body doesn’t have enough protein. Protein is the nutrition required to support your body’s natural healing process. Without it, the body can’t build new tissue.

Increasing protein intake is often necessary to ensure a chronic wound heals well. You may need three times the average daily protein requirement for this to happen.

Repetitive Trauma

If your wound is subjected to repetitive pressure or friction when it rubs or bumps against a surface, it’s said to be experiencing repetitive trauma. Something as simple as not changing positions can disrupt the healing process.

Paraplegic patients and bedridden individuals are at greater risk as they have limited mobility and sleep in the same position at night. In fact, this repetitive trauma is often the cause of chronic wounds. These are typically known as bed sores.

Poor Circulation

New cells are used to rebuild new tissue. The easy access to and from the wound site through the body’s circulatory system allows red blood cells to carry new cells to the wound site during the healing process.

If there’s poor circulation, blood flow is compromised and does notcirculate correctly. Diabetes and obesity are two chronic conditions that impede blood circulation. Exercising, elevating the wound and (in some cases) compression therapy can improve blood circulation.

Excessive Swelling

If your skin accumulates a lot of fluid, it causes swelling. And excessive swelling can impede your wound’s healing ability because it can restrict the oxygen supply at  the wound site.

You may start wearing compression bandages to reduce the swelling. After the swelling disappears, you can begin using proper wound care to continue its healing process.

Certain Medications

Some medications can interfere with the wound’s natural healing ability because of their harmful effects. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines such as aspirin and ibuprofen, for example, can interfere with the inflammation stage of the healing process.

How to Treat or Care for Chronic Wounds

If your chronic wounds aren’t healing, you should visit a doctor. They will find the best solution to help treat the injuries and continue healing. Furthermore, the treatment plan they will give depends on your age, the severity of your wound, and your health. Some treatment options they may recommend are as follows:

Cleaning the Wound & Using Wound Dressings

First, clean the wound and ensure it’s free from debris and dirt. It’s often done with saline solution, but you can also do it while in the shower. Make sure to clean it gently to prevent bacterialinfection. After that, use wound dressings to cover the wound. You can use the following:

• Dressings with silver and alginates
• Foam dressings
• Gauze
• Film
• Hydrogel dressings

Dressings remove excess moisture fluid that may further infect the wound. Make sure to change the bandages and use medical tapes to ensure that it doesn’t slip while they’re healing. At the same time, new dressings can soak up remaining wound secretions.

Use Compression Stockings

Compression stockings and bandages can reduce the swelling of your wound. At the same time, it can improve poor blood circulation. The pressure the stockings or bandages put on the wound can help carry the blood back to the heart through the veins. Therefore, improving circulation.

Antibiotics

Once bacteria infect the wound, healing is slower or may even stop. Antibiotics are used to treat any infection and boost the recovery of your wound. Depending on how severe your wound is, more potent antibiotics  may be required.

Timely Medical Intervention is Essential to Heal Chronic Wounds

Chronic wounds are very tricky and require care to heal properly. Additionally, knowing the reasons or underlying causes why it’s not healing enables you to find the right solution to treat it successfully.

Using the right wound care products is necessary for these types of situations. Medical Monks has an extensive range of ointments and dressings that you can use to manage your wounds at home. It’s crucial to find the proper treatment to support its healing.